What Is ‘Dusting'? The Viral TikTok Trend That Has Led to Teen Deaths
Experts are warning parents of a popular new TikTok trend that is leading to teen deaths. The dangerous practice is called 'dusting,' and, no, it has nothing to do with chores. Dusting involves inhaling computer duster spray to get high, and it's already caused multiple fatalities.
Dusting, also known as 'chroming' or 'huffing,' involves inhaling the chemical difluoroethane, which is often found in duster spray per Treatment Magazine. This method of getting high has been around for decades, although, it seems like TikTok has sparked a resurgence in the trend. The outlet also reported that dust removers are more likely to result in death or severe bodily harm than any other inhalant.
More from SheKnows
Teen Girls Are Obsessed With This New Lip Gloss for 'Guava Girl Summer'
Dr. Randy Weisman, who leads the intensive care unit at HonorHealth Scottsdale Osborn Medical Center, told AZ Family that this can make people feel drunk and euphoric for a couple minutes — but even that is long enough to damage the liver and lungs. Just one huff can be irreversible and potentially deadly.
'This is extremely concerning,' Dr. Weisman told the outlet. 'When they inhale these chemicals in the gas, it will actually replace the oxygen within their lungs and within the rest of their body.' It leads to 'failure of the liver, heart failure, disease of the lungs.'
The risk of death is huge for this risky trend. Recently, a 19-year-old from Arizona named Renna O'Rourke died of sniffing death syndrome after dusting. Her mother Dana O'Rourke told a local NBC outlet that her daughter 'was just the most caring, beautiful soul I've ever, ever known.'
According to Dana, her daughter went into cardiac arrest and spent several days in the ICU before being declared brain dead.
Many other teens have died from this, according to Dr. Weisman. Even celebrities like Aaron Carter have died as a result of huffing compressed air, per PEOPLE.
One of the scary parts of this trend is how easy it is to buy the keyboard cleaner. Dana told NBC that Renna and her boyfriend bought the keyboard cleaner online and had it delivered via Door Dash.
'There's no ID required. It's odorless,' Dana told AZ Family. 'It's everything kids look for. They can afford it, they can get it, and it doesn't show in mom and dad's drug test.'
'We want to make sure that we use our tragedy so that no other parent has to experience looking at their child on life support and a ventilator and not breathing on her own all because she huffed out of a can,' Dana told NBC.
Elena Zavalza, program director with notMYkid, gave Good Morning Arizona tips for parents who want to protect their kids from this trend in a recent appearance.She said to look for bloody noses, a lot of dizziness, nausea, and thirst; check for missing household items and chemicals that come in aerosol sprays; and pay attention if your child is using a lot of rags, which might be used to spray the chemical in before inhaling.
Talk to your teens and tweens about this by 'approaching it … out of curiosity' instead of accusing children, Zavalza said. Instead, ask them, 'Have you heard about this?'
'And even if they have experimented or tried to or thought of doing it, having that conversation with them of the risks, which could be death,' she added.Best of SheKnows
27 Times Katherine Schwarzenegger Proved She's the Sweetest Mom
32 Celebrities Who Froze Their Eggs or Embryos
From Free-Range to Fully Offbeat, These Celebs Embrace Unconventional Parenting Styles
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
TikTok has had it with people who are 'chronically late.' Is 'time blindness' real?
Are you the "chronically late" friend? TikTok would like a word with you. In recent weeks, people have shared viral videos on the app speaking out against those who make constantly running late a defining personality trait. And no, they aren't buying "time blindness" as an excuse − but should they? "You being chronically late and wasting people's time and having poor time management skills isn't a quirky personality trait," one TikToker says in a video with 6 million views. Adds another user in a different video of people who treat being late like a personality quirk: "I love that about you, and it's not at all extremely annoying." The comments are full of people piling on − as well as some issuing profuse apologies for being part of the problem. "As someone that's chronically late, I agree & im so sorry," one commenter wrote. "As someone who is chronically late, I fully accept the consequences or my tardiness. Don't wait for me… leave. I'll figure it out," wrote another. But if someone frequently struggles with lateness, is it possible something deeper is going on? Well, yes. Mental health experts previously told USA TODAY that "time blindness" is indeed a legitimate experience, especially for people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. "Time blindness is a difficulty with a perception of time, how much time is passed, how much time it's going to take to do something, and it can be quite impairing to people," Stephanie Sarkis, a psychotherapist and author specializing in ADHD, anxiety and narcissistic abuse, previously told USA TODAY. "It is a real thing that's been researched." What causes time blindness? People with time blindness struggle to keep track of and estimate time. It's harder for them to gauge how long it will take to complete tasks or how long it will take to arrive somewhere. Though it's most commonly observed in people with ADHD, Sarkis said, time blindness can manifest in anyone with impairment in executive functions stemming from the frontal lobe area of their brain, which is responsible for personality, judgment, self-control and more. More: A TikToker went viral for blaming being late to work on 'time blindness.' Is it a real thing? The frontal lobe is "like a floodgate for the brain," Sarkis said, adding that time blindness can also be present in people with depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health conditions. "It's not exclusive to ADHD, but it does impact ADHD quite a bit." Ari Tuckman, a psychologist specializing in ADHD as well as couples and sex therapy, previously told USA TODAY that people can also experience temporary bouts of time blindness if they are grieving, drunk, stressed or sleep-deprived. People also experience time blindness to varying severity, he added. "We all have some sense of time," Tuckman said. "This ability to see and be aware of time, it's a human ability that's on a spectrum. Some people are really good; some people are not as good." How can people cope with time blindness? Sarkis and Tuckman offer these tips for those who may be struggling with time blindness: For those who don't struggle with time blindness, Sarkis said, getting frustrated and exasperated with someone who does won't solve the problem. "We all have different strengths and weaknesses," she said. "Not only do we positively reinforce people's strengths, but we also need to be kind and understanding about people's weaknesses, and getting upset with someone isn't going to improve that weakness."
CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
Live updates: Senate inches toward a vote on Trump's sweeping domestic policy bill
Update: Date: 11 min ago Title: "Vote-a-rama" expected for this morning Content: The Senate's marathon voting session — known as a 'vote-a-rama' — that will take place before a final vote on President Donald Trump's sweeping agenda bill is now expected to begin at 9 a.m. ET on Monday, according to a notice sent out by Senate GOP Whip John Barrasso's office. During the marathon voting session, senators can offer as many amendments as they want to vote on before a final vote on the bill. Senators were originally expected to begin the vote-a-rama overnight. Update: Date: 11 min ago Title: Medicaid concerns are central to the debate around Trump's policy bill. Here's what to know Content: Democrats and some Republicans are raising alarm about the impact of changes to Medicaid in President Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful bill,' which GOP leaders worked through the weekend to advance in the Senate. Here's what to know about this sticking point for some Republicans: How it would impact Americans: The Senate version of Trump's agenda bill would leave 11.8 million more people without health insurance in 2034, according to analysis the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released yesterday. That's more than the 10.9 million more people projected to be left uninsured by the House-passed version of the bill. Both chambers are calling for historic spending cuts to Medicaid, which provides coverage to more than 71 million low-income Americans. The package would also enact changes to the Affordable Care Act that are projected to reduce enrollment in the landmark health reform law. But the Senate version calls for even deeper cuts to the Medicaid, leading to the larger estimate. It's emerged as a key issue for holdouts: Only two Republicans voted against advancing Trump's bill in a key procedural vote late Saturday. One of them — Sen. Thom Tillis, who announced yesterday that he will not run for reelection next year — has specifically voiced concerns about the impact Medicaid cuts would have on his constituents. Other GOP lawmakers who are pursuing changes to the bill before a final vote, including Sen. Susan Collins, have also signaled hesitance about changes to the program. Trump allies push back: Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a top Senate negotiator for the president's bill, dismissed Tillis' criticism in an interview yesterday. The bill will cut 'waste, fraud and abuse' from Medicaid, Mullin said on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' He argued that too many people above the poverty line are receiving benefits, and the bill would only eliminate those who 'should never be there' in the first place. GOP Sen. Jim Banks also defended the bill in an interview Sunday morning, telling Fox News that the cuts would only affect 'able-bodied Americans' who 'shouldn't receive Medicaid without working.'
Vox
3 hours ago
- Vox
Obsessive step counts are ruining walking
According to my phone, I've been averaging about 6,600 steps a day so far this year. My meager effort pales in comparison to the 15,000, 20,000, or even 30,000 steps I see influencers on my feed bragging about regularly. To be clear: There is nothing wrong with walking — it's a free and low-impact exercise that, compared to running, has greater mass appeal. Americans are overwhelmingly sedentary, spending an average of 9.5 hours a day seated, and anything that inspires people to move more is good news. But quantifying your every step, tracking every ounce of protein ingested, or hours slept can border on obsessive. The current cultural fixation on nutrition and fitness also speaks to a shift toward beauty standards that once again idealize thinness. Mix that with American hustle culture, and you have a recipe for turning a low-key activity into a compulsion. 'This all comes down to how much our culture values productivity above everything else,' says Keith Diaz, an associate professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University Medical Center. 'It's just another metric that we measure ourselves by.' From leisure to optimization Walking is perhaps one of the most functional and accessible forms of movement: It gets you where you want to go, and you don't need any special equipment to do it. The vast majority of people walk at some point during their day without having to think too much about it. It makes sense, then, that walking has come in and out of fashion as a form of exercise throughout history. In the late 1800s, leisure walking became a popular sport. A century later, at the height of the fitness boom in the 1980s, walking got a rebrand and a refresh, thanks to a book called Heavyhands touting the benefits of walking with weights. 'That became,' says Danielle Friedman, the author of Let's Get Physical: How Women Discovered Exercise and Reshaped The World, 'a way to make walking not seem weak.' To achieve a textbook hot girl walk, you must walk four miles while expressing gratitude and envisioning your goals. The pandemic was a major boon for walking. With gyms and fitness studios closed and cabin fever setting in, many took to strolling as a way to get moving out of the house. Walking was gentler and less punishing than the high-intensity fitness trends of the early 2000s, Friedman says. 'The pendulum swung a little bit more toward just appreciating movement for movement's sake,' she says. But as social media caught on — the original 'hot girl walk' clip was posted on TikTok in January 2021 — walks became more performative. Walking now had a purpose. To achieve a textbook hot girl walk, for instance, you must walk four miles while expressing gratitude and envisioning your goals. Over time, the step counts ballooned. Keeping careful track of your mileage also has a long history. The first modern pedometer was designed in 1965 in Japan. Called the manpo-kei, or 10,000 steps meter, this simple act of marketing helped cement the 10,000-step threshold as a benchmark that one should strive to hit for good health and well-being. The science doesn't quite back up the marketing. Recent research has found that among women in their 70s, as few as 4,400 steps a day is related to lower mortality, compared to 2,700 steps or less. Those who walked more had even less risk for early mortality, but those benefits tapered off at more than about 7,500 steps. Another study of middle-aged adults found that those who took 8,000 steps were less likely to die early from heart disease and cancer compared to those who only took 4,000 steps. Again, the benefits plateaued after 8,000 steps. Similar findings suggest that 7,000 steps was the magic number (the studies, it should be noted, were observational and could not prove causation.) If you're walking for health, 7,000 to 8,000 steps, however, seems like a pretty good bet. These days, everyone's got a step counter in their pocket or on their wrist. Health tracking apps on phones and wearables like the Apple Watch, Oura, Fitbit, and Whoop have made it much easier to account for every single step. Health-related tracking can be extremely motivating when it comes to behavior change. When you have specific health or fitness goals, tracking is a good way to measure success. 'You have a target and you have a means to measure it,' Diaz says, 'which is great.' At the same time, you should want to engage in that activity because you like it and not because your watch or an influencer is telling you to move. Unless you're intrinsically motivated to achieve that goal — I walk because I like the way it feels — tracking can veer into compulsion. Once you've hit a benchmark of 10,000 or 15,000 or 20,000 steps, you may feel compelled to meet, or exceed, it every day or else fall into a shame and anxiety spiral. 'When the Fitbit first came out,' Diaz says, 'I used it for a couple weeks, and I just had to put it away because I couldn't do it anymore. If I didn't hit 10,000 steps in a day, it'd be nine o'clock at night and…I'd be circling my little, tiny living room for 20 minutes just to get my steps to where I need them to be. I'm sitting there, like how is this healthy in any way, shape, or form that I'm obsessing over a number?' Although quantifying an activity increases how often you do it, you start to enjoy it less. Soon, something that previously brought you enjoyment can start to feel like work. Although quantifying an activity (like counting steps or the number of pages read) increases how often you do it, you start to enjoy it less, a 2016 study found. This change can happen within a few days of tracking, the study's author Jordan Etkin, a professor of marketing at Duke University, says. When participants were able to see their results, they would continue the activity. But when they weren't shown their data, they lost the motivation to continue. 'The reasons for doing the activity shift from being because you like it or find some other value in it,' Etkin says, 'to being because it gives you this sense of accomplishment and productivity. When you don't get that anymore, because you're not tracking how many of these things you're doing, it's less valuable to you.' Instead of just moving for movement's sake, perpetual tracking assigns status and morality to basic bodily functions. Hitting a certain step count is 'good' and having a low readiness score is 'bad.' The number acts as a marker of wellness. These days, the ideal embodiment of that wellness has pivoted back toward thinness. No longer is a step just a step or a gram of protein a bit of nourishment — it's all in service of optimization of a skinnier, healthier self. People who track their health want every step to count, to matter, Etkin says. If it isn't being documented, it may as well not have happened. 'That introduces new dynamics into how people decide what and whether and when to do things,' she says, 'based on whether it's going to be recorded.' A healthy balance By no means should you stop walking if it improves your mental and physical health. But if the pressure of hitting a specific target every day causes anxiety or you're unable to forgo walking for a day, you may need to reconsider your relationship with your goals. This is 'because you're obsessing over this outward signal, and it becomes this unhealthy striving for perfectionism,' Diaz says. People can start to ignore their body's cues for rest and push themselves to injury. Related Take off your Oura Ring In order to maintain a more flexible outlook on your goals, Diaz suggests setting a range target — maybe 8,000 to 12,000 steps a day — or weekly benchmarks. If you know you're going to be moving a lot on the weekend, you won't be so fixated on a weekday where your step count is lower.
